Lord Love a Duck (1966) is a dark comedy directed by George Axelrod, who wrote the screenplay for The Manchurian Candidate (1962). That alone says watch it. The film mocks beach movies, education (high-school Botany has been renamed Plant Skills for Life), family life, home decor (a living-room conversation pit so deep that it echoes), sexual mores, teenaged in-groups, and everything else. As Axelrod says in a promotional trailer, whatever it might be, Lord Love a Duck is against it.
Even Blackwing pencils. Silly high-school principal Weldon Emmett (“e-double-m, e-double-t”) has a cupful on his desk. He does everything with them but write.
Related reading
Other Blackwing posts (via Pinboard)
Is there a pencil in The House? (More pencils in the movies)
[The Concise New Partidge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2008) explains “Lord love-a-duck” as “a mild expression of shock or suprise.” The expression turns up in James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922): “‘Lord love a duck,’ he said. ‘Look at what I’m standing drinks to!’”]
comments: 4
Hi Michael,
I've found my way back to the world of blogging, so I've had a look through your entries.
The Stanley Fish one tempts me, but I 'm on my way to bed, so I won't have time to read it. Your two posts about the Duck film are lots of fun. I'll try to get it on Netflix.
Hi Caroline,
Welcome back. I liked your spring post. (You’re in my Google Reader, so I never miss a post.)
Nice find, Michael!
Curiously, this is the second instance of a movie-related Blackwing sighting I've encountered where the eraser was missing. The other was from "Soylent Green".
Yes, it is missing. Good catch, Sean.
Here’s Sean’s Soylent Green find. There are more at The Blackwing Pages.
Post a Comment